A few days ago, several countries signed ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. As you are probably aware, ACTA was drafted up in secret, and is basically Obama/Biden's attempt to impose the US' draconian pro-big business/big content protection laws on the rest of the world ('sign it, or else'). The European Parliament still has to vote on it, and as such, Douwe Korff, professor of international law at the London Metropolitan University, and Ian Brown senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, performed a 90-page study, with a harsh conclusion: ACTA violates fundamental human rights.

Remember all those cease-and-desist and 'pay us $2,000, and we won't file suit against you' letters? The evidence was collected privately. And, as long as people are part of public networks, that aspect of policing isn't going away anytime soon. The difference, I think, is that this law aims to make it easier for the police to target and extract compensation/punishment from/for people.

Look, I know that we all don't want a Big Brother state. But, when the shit hits the proverbial fan -- and if this law ever sees the light of day -- it's primarily going to be an issue for the great unwashed among us who have no idea how to anonymize ourselves properly. That doesn't mean I'm in favor of this law. I'm not. But there are always countermeasures, and that's what it might come down to...